Flores was released on $40,000 bail, and Precinct 1 Commissioner Eliaz Maldonado, who's also facing corruption charges, is out on bail as well, so the court can make a quorum.

Flores maintained his innocence Thursday.

Just before the new year, the county attorney filed a lawsuit to remove from office Maldonado and Precinct 2 Commissioner Rodolfo Heredia, who's in jail on charges that he broke federal law by doing business with the violent Zetas drug cartel. His arrest, in October, was the first.

If Heredia and Maldonado are removed, a judge will appoint replacements, County Attorney Ricardo Ramos said.

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“I assume the district judge will grant my petition to suspend them without pay and appoint someone in their place while the removal proceedings are pending,” Ramos said. “So we can keep the county business going.”

Ramos said he hasn't had a chance to review the charges against Flores and decide if he would ask for his removal as well.

Flores, whose brother worked for Maldonado and was arrested last year, was indicted on five counts of receiving bribes. Prosecutors allege that in 2010 and 2011 he took cash payments in exchange for handing out county contracts. He faces up to 10 years in prison.

Flores, a schoolteacher, said Thursday after his release that he's a devoted public servant, is involved in youth softball as well as working for the county, and that he hasn't done anything illegal.

“We plan to defend ourselves against the allegations,” he said.

Flores said that in light of the motion to remove Heredia and Maldonado from office, he's not sure if he'll keep his post.

He said he'd be willing to work without pay if that would assuage the concerns of Maverick County residents who have complained about taxpayers continuing to cover the salaries of commissioners under indictment.

“What I would like to do is to continue” serving as a commissioner, he said.

Federal agents arrested him at about 5:30 a.m. Thursday at his house in Eagle Pass, the border county's seat, Flores said.

Along with the three commissioners, five other current and former county employees face bribery charges. More than a dozen people in all, including three who received county contracts, have been charged as a result of the investigation by the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI.

The investigation appears to center on a $15 million grant from the Texas Department of Transportation to improve roads and drainage in the county's poor colonias. A TxDOT audit found that some contracts had been overbid, and investigators found that some projects were never completed, according to court documents.

Last week, a Maverick County justice of the peace and two of his former secretaries were arrested on state charges of theft by a public servant. A spokesman for the attorney general's office said the feds were not involved in that investigation.

jbuch@express-news.net

Twitter: @jlbuch

An earlier version of this article incorrectly identified Maverick County's Precinct 3 commissioner.